Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Take a brand new look at the shadowy Dark Side leader Snoke and his samurai-style bodyguards…
The story group from Lucasfilm has made it clear from the beginning that Supreme Leader Snoke and his most promising apprentice Kylo Ren both are not Sith. However; with the Sith dead and gone, a new Dark Side presence has emerged from the shadows and taken center-stage.
Rising from the ashes of the Empire, the First Order has the Dark Side of the Force looking cooler than ever with Kylo Ren’s fancy new TIE fighter, larger Star Destroyers, and adding to the mix, our first detailed look at some elite new samurai-style guards brought to us by our friends at Entertainment Weekly, who keep on revealing more goodies for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
As director Rian Johnson explains, the Praetorian Guards are more like Samurai and not at all like the ceremonial Royal Guards that Emporer Palpatine employed.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Praetorian Guards
"They have to be built to move, and you have to believe that they could step forward and engage if they have to. They have to seem dangerous."
EW’s Star Wars correspondent Anthony Breznican explains that we will actually get to see Supreme Leader Snoke in The Last Jedi.
"In this film, we get up close and personal with Snoke, right in his disfigured, smashed , burned face by way of the Praetorian Guard who are his bodyguards. They protect him, they shield him."
Star Wars fans have been itching to know the identity of the shadowy Snoke, but we don’t know a whole lot about him. What we do know for sure is that his First Order originated when the Empire fled into the Unknown regions after their final defeat at the Battle of Jakku, leading the survivors to him.
Snoke then seduced and turned Kylo Ren to the Dark Side about 5 or 6 years before the events of The Force Awakens, and according to The Force Awakens novelization, Snoke had his eye on Ben Solo from a very young age.
We are also told from the same novel that Snoke watched The Empire rise and fall, stating its defeat and undoing came from sentiment, when Darth Vader let his love shine for his son. Snoke wants to know if that same sentiment runs through Vader’s grandson, Kylo Ren, hoping to turn him fully to the Dark Side for good.
Johnson says we can expect to get more details of the unknown Dark Side Force user in The Last Jedi.
"We’ll learn exactly as much about Snoke as we need to. We will see more of him, and Andy Serkis will get to do much more in this film than he did in the last one. And that guy is just a force of nature."
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From Johnson’s remarks, we see that we won’t get a whole lot of Snoke in the film, but when we do, it will be worth the price of admission. Motion capture veteran Andy Serkis, who plays Snoke, really impressed Johnson and the film crew, often leaving them in awe.
"I’d be sitting at the monitor just with my eyes as big as dinner plates. It’s one of those performances where after every line, I’d look over at whoever’s standing next to me with an expression on my face like, ‘Oh, my God, we just got that."
Andy Serkis Photog rights: Lucasfilm
What I’m expecting from Snoke in The Last Jedi is just a small appetizer of what he has to offer, with more to be revealed about his origins in the untitled Episode IX.
Next: 50 Most Memorable Moments from Star Wars Rebels
See more Snoke and the introduction of his Praetorian guards when The Last Jedi hits theaters December 15th, 2017.